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A place wherein this Dwarven Cleric can share his love of maps, dice, miniatures, and all things involving gaming and general geekery--not to mention the occasional witty non-gaming observations--whilst escaping from the humdrum existence of his routine Terran existence.

Hail and Well Met, fellow traveler! May my Stronghold provide a place for enlightenment and amusement, and somewhere to keep your dice dry. Enter and rest awhile.

29 September 2011

[OSR Challenge] Midnight In The Garden Of Neutral And Chaotic Evil

Midnight In The Garden Of Neutral And Chaotic Evil: A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! 3.5 Edition adventure set in a Dwarven Stronghold, but easily dropped into any stronghold or similar structure.

Get Ready:

Rumors of fantastic treasure draw the adventurers to a dwarven druid’s small keep; even better: the druid has not been seen for weeks. Now is their chance.

Get Set:

Dwarven druids are few and far between, but they do exist. They are largely solitary individuals, mostly because “tree-lovers” are not well-accepted in most clans. Delthen Norran was the perfect example. Two hundred years ago, as a young dwarf, he found a small abandoned keep and made it his stronghold. He had no castle staff and lived alone. He devoted his life to his love of plants and collected thousands of rare specimens. This is undoubtedly the source of the treasure rumors, as Delthen actually had very little money to his name. All he had was what he could earn making occasional potions and concoctions for the townsfolk.

It has been weeks since anyone in the neighboring town has seen Delthen. The adventurers have heard both the rumors of the treasure and his strange disappearance. This is obviously the best chance anyone would have in looking for the treasure.

Go!:

The keep has no more than ten or fifteen rooms. There is nothing of real value in any of the rooms. Neither is there any sign of the druid Delthen. One of the last places the adventurers should look is in the druid’s solarium.

When they enter the solarium, the first thing they see is a mass of vegetation everywhere. The solarium is 60' by 60'; walking spaces are limited to 2' to 3' wide and seemingly without rhyme or reason, which makes the room feel even larger than it appears. The room is packed with plants of all sorts at the DM’s discretion, most of which are benign species. There are only three malignant species in the small glass room.

Near the door is a mass of vines growing bunches of succulent-looking wild grapes. The leaves and vines drift slightly as if in a breeze. Any adventurer that approaches quickly learns first-hand, to his detriment, that this plant is actually an assassin vine.

A little searching through the solarium and the adventurers will find a mass of woody shrubs or what appears to be firewood. If the adventurers approach this, the shrubs come alive, revealing themselves to be five twig blights. The twig blights also attack if the adventurers do not approach, but turn their backs on the mass.

Finally, from the furthest corner of the solarium comes “an amorphous mass of colorful, lichen-crusted bubbles lumbers toward the adventurers. The outer layer is mottled with bright red, amber, and flesh-colored blotches, and covered with a slick coat of leafy, hairlike stalks. As the bubbles writhe to the surface, some of them pop, releasing the unmistakable stench of decomposing matter and swamp gas.” This disgusting mass is what remains of the druid Delthen. His solarium was invaded by a fetid fungus, which attacked him several weeks ago as he entered the room. Since then it has been slowly digesting his body. Little is left of the druid and the hungry fetid fungus is attracted by the sounds of the adventurers struggles with the other malignant plants.

If the adventures defeat the fetid fungus, a DC 20 search will find in its remains the druid’s beloved scimitar he called Soulseeker. They will also find 50gp as they sift through the fungal mass.

Notable Creatures:

Assassin Vine: See3.5 Monster Manual, p. 20.

Twig Blights (5): See3.5 Monster Manual II, p.197.

Fetid Fungus: See3.5 Monster Manual V, p.56.

Notable Item:

Soulseeker: +3 spell storing scimitar, 32,000 gp.

______________________________________________________This is the twenty-third of 26 adventures that I will be sharing over the month of September. They are designed for use with edition 3.5 of the world’s most popular fantasy RPG, although they can be easily dropped into any fantasy setting (or modern/sci-fi setting with a little work). These posts are a part of Asshat Paladin’s OSR Short Adventure Challenge , and utilize his Get Ready, Get Set, Go! Format.